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Residents concerned with draft plan for Bellevue waterfront park

Residents of the 10000 Meydenbauer Bay complex, right, have joined the Meydenbauer Bay Neighbors Association in voicing concerns about the proposed elevated walkway and closing of 100th Ave. SE visualized here.

Now the plan goes to the Bellevue Parks Board, and then to the City Council for review and adoption this spring.

Marvin Peterson, a member of the Meydenbauer Bay group, says the city needs to take a time out.

"The planners have done nothing but stick 100 percent to what they want to do," he said. "We're very much for a park, but we don't want the fast-track shoved down our throats. We want this process done properly."

Bellevue community-development manager Mark Bergstrom says the amount of planning and discussion has been adequate.

"It's been a three-year process," he said. "When we first started, the thought was that it would be one year, so it's not been fast-tracked by any means."

The Meydenbauer Bay group advocates keeping 100th Avenue Southeast open to preserve a traffic shortcut that relieves pressure from Main Street. The group also says the proposed events center would be an imposing structure on what should be a tranquil park setting.

As for moorage, the city owns 112 slips. The draft master plan calls for that number to be cut by as much as half, with 14 transient slips and between 38 to 48 leasable slips available in the new park.

Critics of the plan say it would be a mistake to get rid of moorage because it is increasingly rare and can be a revenue-generator for they city.

The Meydenbauer Bay group also questions the logic of up-zoning neighborhoods that surround the park when the city has already exceeded its growth-management goals.

Finally, residents of the 10000 Meydenbauer Way condominium complex fear that the proposed elevated pier would become a towering eyesore that blocks their views of the water.

Peterson said he hopes the new council majority, with its conservative bent on planning and spending, will heed the concerns of his group.

The steering committee that approved the draft master plan was comprised of residents selected by the previous council.

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